Tom Donohoe, Senior Contact Manager for West Yorkshire Police: “New Year’s Eve is always a very busy night for the Customer Contact Centre and it was especially busy this time.

“We have to treat each 999 call as a genuine emergency – so we have to presume that the caller is someone facing a serious situation in their life and needing our help, quickly.

“Our call handlers have to investigate every call – and that includes ‘pocket dials’ and people calling in for a lift home - yes, we really had calls to taxi people home.

“Despite this demand for service our call handlers coped extremely well – they are some of the ‘unsung heroes’ of the Force – they are usually the first person someone speaks to when they are facing a terrible time in their life.

READ MORE: Man's body found in Tesco supermarket car park in Batley“I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Senior Leadership Team to thank them for their work throughout 2018 – a year which has seen unprecedented demand on the Customer Contact Centre – culminating in a particularly busy New Year’s Eve.”